UK And EU May Make Unsolicited Email Illegal

An anonymous reader writes "According to this BBC article the UK and the EU are planning to making unsolicited email simply illegal. This doesn't do anything for prevention practically, but it does legally pave the way for measures that do. Lord Sainsbury of Turville admits it will do nothing to stop spam from outside the EU."

Comments

UK and the EU?

[Anonymous Coward]

Last time I checked, UK was a part of the EU, and has been for decades. :P

It will work.

[qute]

In Denmark it is already illegal for companies(but not people) to send out SPAM.

If the EU makes SPAM illegal, then spammers cannot SPAM from the EU.
US is also trying to stop SPAM.

Lets say these countries are the only ones to do something. It will still work!

Currently I put everything from china into my SPAM-folder and by golly, I'll just blacklist every country that doesn't have anti-SPAM laws.

Problem (almost) solved :-)

EU has already made UCE illegal

[kaip]

EU has already made unsolicited commercial email (UCE) illegal, see article 13 of the Directive on privacy and electronic communications (2002/58/EC), after intense lobbying e.g. by EuroCAUCE.

The directive must be implemented by the member states by 31 October 2003.

(I just wrote statement [in Finnish] to the Finnish ministry of transports and communications on behalf of Electronic Frontier Finland of our proposed local implementation of the directive (which at the current form would allow ask-permission-spam (i.e. you would be allowed to send spam to ask permission to send more spam. :( )))

Physical spam in the UK

[mccalli]

There are two useful services for stopping unwanted mail and calls in the UK. I'm registered with both, and they do work.

• The Mailing Preferences Service for direct mail. Remember to sign up and block the names of you, your family, your dog, the previous owner's dog etc.
• The Telephone Preferences Service is the phone equivalent. Never really got much direct calling anyway, but I've had none since signing up for this.

Both services take about three months to fully kick in following registration.

There's a loophole in the mailing one though, and a comment in another thread some time ago mentioned a way round it. Junk mail may still be delivered to 'The Occupier' by the Royal Mail. Someone a while ago mentioned there was a service to stop this too - haven't been able to find that one. Anybody know?

Cheers,
Ian

Re:Physical spam in the UK

[Scooby71]

You missed the fax preference service.

Useful when you get fax calls on a new land line from a commercial fax bureau. More than a little annoying at 4am in the morning.

Re:The really nice side-effect:

[zcat_NZ]

That is to say, we'll suddenly see a lot more careless e-mail blocks being placed on large swaths of entire countries, some by individuals, and most likely often by ISPs.

Which reminds me; could you all kindly remind your ISP's that APNIC's address space is not JUST China, Korea and the Phillipines. It includes some friendly, non-spammy countries too (NZ and Australia).

Thank you, anti-spam campaigners

[pchown]

This directive was first published in the middle of last year, I don't know why it's suddenly become newsworthy. The anti-spam campaigners have done well, though. As far as EU companies go, email will be opt-in for the whole European Economic Area (which includes the European Union). I'd like to thank the people who have put in so much effort to bring about this result.

Another interesting legal change comes with the Electronic Commerce Directive, which removes ISP's liability when they are acting as a "mere conduit" for illegal information. This is already in force, and marks the end of Godrey v Demon.

Re:This is poorly thought out.

[Anonymous Coward]

> Joe comes across slashdot and, offended by the diatribe, writes an angry flame in disagreement and e-mails it to Bill

(40) Safeguards should be provided for subscribers against intrusion of their privacy by unsolicited communications for direct marketing purposes in particular by means of automated calling machines, telefaxes, and e-mails, including SMS messages. These forms of unsolicited commercial communications may on the one hand be relatively easy and cheap to send and on the other may impose a burden and/or cost on the recipient. Moreover, in some cases their volume may also cause difficulties for electronic communications networks and terminal equipment. For such forms of unsolicited communications for direct marketing, it is justified to require that prior explicit consent of the recipients is obtained before such communications are addressed to them.

> excuse for the idea that Bill has entered into a business relationship with it, and then sends Bill spam forever without a clear sign of how to remove himself from their lists?

(41) Within the context of an existing customer relationship, it is reasonable to allow the use of electronic contact details for the offering of similar products or services, but only by the same company that has obtained the electronic contact details in accordance with Directive 95/46/EC. When electronic contact details are obtained, the customer should be informed about their further use for direct marketing in a clear and distinct manner, and be given the opportunity to refuse such usage. This opportunity should continue to be offered with each subsequent direct marketing message